Dr Doom
Victor von Doom's parents died when he was very young. His mother, Cynthia, was killed due to a bargain with Mephisto gone wrong. After a noblewoman died despite his attempts to care for her, Werner von Doom and a young Victor fled on a cold winter night. Although Victor survived, his father did not. Doom sought to increase his knowledge of both science and magic in order to avenge his parents. In his youth Doom fell in love with a woman named Valeria, but she resisted his advances. As part of a bargain with the Hazareth Three, Doom had her sacrificed to gain him power. State University in Hegeman, New York offered Victor a scholarship. While attending classes he encountered Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. Doom became obsessed with developing a machine that could project the astral form of a being into other dimensions, seeing it as a way to free his mother from Mephisto's clutches. Reed pointed out a flaw in Doom's calculations, but Doom arrogantly ignored his warning, feeling Reed was trying to upstage him. The machine exploded, scarring Doom's face. He was soon expelled for conducting unethical experiments. Disgraced and bitter, Doom traveled the world. Eventually he came upon a small Tibetan village of monks who assisted him in creating a suit of armor. He returned to his homeland of Latveria to overthrow the leader and declare himself king. He then began to use his country's resources in order to further his plans of world domination. These schemes led Doom into conflict with the Fantastic Four on many occasions, as well as many other superheroes. Doom first confronted the Fantastic Four by holding Sue Storm hostage. Doom forced the other members of the team to travel back in time using his time platform to retrieve the mystical Merlin Stones. Later, he duped Namor into teaming up with him to destroy the team. One such instance was his battle and victory over the Silver Surfer. Doom stole the Surfer's powers and surfboard, becoming one of the most powerful beings on Earth. He defeated the Fantastic Four but was tricked into flying into the barrier set up around the Earth by Galactus and the Surfer's powers and surfboard returned to their rightful owner. Another coup came on Battleworld during the first of the so-called Secret Wars. Doom became leader of the evil side in the war. After their defeat, Doom escaped his holding cell and constructed a device out of the body of Klaw to drain the power of Galactus. Using his stolen power he was able to attack his true target, The Beyonder, the cosmic being who arranged the Secret Wars. Doom lost the battle, but as the Beyonder came closer to dissect and study Doom, he managed to activate a device in his chest plate which hovered barely within his reach. Doom drained the Beyonder and became even more powerful. Too powerful, in fact--Doom was unable to rest, lest he destroy the universe with a dream. The Beyonder had however survived. He took possession of Klaw's body and used Klaw's guile to trick Doom into losing control of his stolen power, reclaiming it and defeating him. When Franklin Richards was kidnapped by Onslaught, Doom joined the Fantastic Four, Avengers and the X-Men to battle Onslaught in Central Park. An enraged Hulk was able to crack open Onslaught's shell. However, Onslaught remained as pure psionic energy, planning to spread across the planet. Thor plunged into Onslaught, trying to contain him. The Fantastic Four, the majority of Avengers, and even Doom followed. Thanks to this sacrifice, the X-Men finally managed to destroy Onslaught. Doom, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers were believed dead, but were instead saved by Franklin, who created a pocket dimension called Counter-Earth to keep them safe. After several months away, the missing heroes returned from Counter-Earth, except for Doom, who remained for a time.